Cell Signaling Diseases Project Due: Friday, December 5, 2008
Each pair of individuals will choose from the list below. No topics may be chosen twice per each class. Students who wish to work alone may also do so. I suggest that when you begin your research you Google the disease and “cell signaling” or “signal transduction.” Your responsibility is to develop a poster that explains the basics of the disease and its relationship to a faulty signal transduction pathway. Much of this research is "cutting edge." Your poster must explain both the "normal" pathway and the "faulty" pathway. Pictures and graphics are also necessary. I do not expect you to work at the graduate level on this project but I do expect you to be able to explain, in your own words, the basics of the mechanism and the way in which the failure of the mechanism leads to disease.

Grading: Total Points - 80

Format - poster - 15 points
. 18" X 24" minimum
. Typed headings
. Pictures and graphics as needed
. Neat presentation - no spelling or grammatical errors

. One side only.

Content - 45 points
. Disease - basics only - cause and core symptoms
. Cell signaling pathway involved
. Correct mechanism
. Graphics of pathway
. Current direction of research

Presentation - 20 points
. Three - Five minute presentation of poster to class. Do NOT go over. You will lose points.
. Be able to put content into "own words" and explain poster
. No direct reading off poster

Diseases


Alzheimer's disease
Alopecia
Ataxia-telangiectasia (AT)
Bernard-Soulier Syndrome
Bipolar Affective Disorder
Botulism
Cholera
Chronic myelogenous leukemia –
Chronic Myeloid leukemia - CML
Cockayne syndrome
Congenital Heart Disease and Cardiomyocyte hypertrophy
Familial exudative vitreoretinopathy (FEVR)
Glaucoma
Hypertension
Insulin Resistance and Diabetes
Kidney disease
Kostmann Disease
Multiple sclerosis
Neurofibromatosis
Norrie disease
Osteoporosis
Pancreatic cancer
Parkinson's disease and calcium channels
Pertussis (whooping cough)
Thrombasthenia
Tourette syndrome
Tuberous sclerosis
Waardenburg syndrome
Werner syndrome
Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome (WAS)

from Lynn Mirello lynn@miriello.net